Thursday, January 29, 2015

Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success

-Christopher Lasch

A quote that often resonates with almost each one of us, for
the fashion conscious sense in us is constantly trying to adapt and ensure we
look charming & presentable, if not beautiful . This appearance alone can
give us a huge boost of confidence in our personality, emanating a feeling of
success all over us

Apart from the already long list of medical bills, we don’t
mind spending thousands of rupees in maintaining our skin and face to make it
look flawless, spotless and scar free. In fact for a lot many of them, their
greatest fear is not tension of exam results or even a job interview ,but very
much the appearance of a small pimple in the corner of the face.This small pimple can literally shatter their
confidence, make them go upset and live in constant anxiety that this may lead
to a breakout of more pimples in their face, expecting to be ridiculed by peers
and friends

Thus begins a whole radical change in their lifestyle, from
countless visits to the doc, stocking up on every ointment, changing diet
patterns and walking around the house most of the time with a face pack.
Sometimes the obsession is so much that people even refuse to come out of the
house, even for a social gathering, fearing what people might say about his/her
face

What is Acne ?

Sebum, an oily secretion of the glands gets accumulated in the pore because it cant escape the clog to moisturize the face. In this environment, the acne bacteria grows.When the pressure in the interior area of the pores is great, it ruptures and white blood cells come in to fight this infection. This now causes a pimple in your face

Effects of Acne

Despite not being any kind of a health hazard, an acne break
or a pimple can indeed affect someone, including me in several ways. Some of
them are as follows:

Confidence: The most important trait to succeed in life is
confidence and a belief in oneself. However acnes are prone to not only affect
the skin but your piece of a mind. This has a direct influence on your
confidence levels to be low like never before. Plus it doesn’t help when you
are taunted by friends or inquisitive relatives

Beauty: Who doesn’t like a beautiful flawless face, an
unblemished skin with no marks and a smile that can make everyone blush? This
can be endangered easily with the emergence of a tiny red bubble in the form of
acne. They no longer emanate the charm that they were once proud of.

Social Life: For people who are sensitive about their skin,
a pimple can be a huge blowout. It makes them stay indoors at any cost and
cover their face with whatever available, if forced to go outside. Thereby
resulting in strained friendships and a non-existent social life .In fact some
acne sufferers tend to grow their hair long to ensure their face is completely
covered. Some even feel embarrassed about them and restrict conversations only
with phones.

Depression: Apart from a non-existent social life, another
major effect of a pimple is depression. The embarrassment of the scar,
isolation from others, an inactive social life , a feeling of unworthiness and
other behavioural problems due to the acne effect can lead to a major
depression.Several scientific studies have shown that there is a direct
linkage between acne and the rate of success in life Numerous cases indicate
that acne has a negative effect in one’s growth in professional as well as personal
life

Time and Money: The biggest impact however is the immense
amount of time and money wasted in getting facial surgeries, clinical visits,
blood tests and purchasing ointments to prevent acne from appearing, yet most
attempts remain futile .They still keep coming and in the end only a huge
effort has been wasted , all for nothing

Quick Fixes

Some of the quick fix solutions for acne problems (as
sourced from Friends, Relatives, Doctors and Internet) are as below

1 ) Applying Apple Cider Vinegar Solution

2) Drinking lots of water and keeping the body hydrated

3) Squeezing lemon on the face and rubbing it on the affected areas

Here's some more, sourced from research articles in effectively treating acne

My History of Acne

So like everybody else, I wasn’t spared of an acne breakout
in my teenage years which lasted for a decade till just about recently. The whole ordeal of dealing with it day in and out was an
actual nightmare of me.

Some of the torments included

Friends and Relatives asking:
“Hey, What’s that in your face??”

People automatically becoming
skin doctors and dishing out advice like : ” You should apply a lemon extract
with honey on your face ,pretty much all the time, avoid sunlight and stop
eating chips. Maybe they were right at some level ,but the constant advice
wherever I went completely ticked me off

Fewer interactions with the
opposite gender than normal , as I felt being avoided at some point of time due
to the distracting acne marks in my skin

Out of desperation , had tried
many times to prick the acne causing it to burst even more and leaving dark
black spots all over my face

A sympathetic look I got from
friends and sometimes even strangers made me feel mad every time I saw acne on my face
in the mirror, it gave a very low feeling and almost felt a huge loneliness and
sometimes went to the verge of a depression

Below is a pic where my face was not very clear due to blackheads and a lot of pimples on the nose and forehead

Attempts at Removing Acne

Source : www.wikihow.com

1.Avoided oil and sugary items for
sometime. No effect

2. Applied tea tree oil, Acnesol , Benzyl Peroxide
almost three times a day

Find below a pic from my cabinet of the various things I have been using till now to treat acne

3. Another set of people attributed
the pimples and acne due to dandruff that fell from hair to face and

shoulders.
Hence went for another Anti Dandruff treatment, hoping for an indirect cure to
Acne.

4. Some also said, it was due to
excessive body heat which results in Acne Breakouts.

Hence went for oil massage
treatments, hoping to cool off the body a bit

Even after a short while of repeated usage, I got the old
radiance and charm back. Pimple spots begin to disappear, dead cells got exfoliated
and there were less and less of the acne in the face. With a clear face and an even clearer face,nothing stopped me from regaining my
confidence, success and finally my smile back

And its time for a better "Clear" selfie :)

Saturday, January 24, 2015

I still remember my fascination when I saw a computer at my
primary school, trying my hand in MS Paint Application for the first time. The
feel of the mouse, the colour monitor captivated me in a never before way.

Years down the line, I went on to buy myself a personal
“Assembled” computer for a pricey sum of 40,000.Rs. It had a configuration of
Intel Pentium Processor III, 256 MB RAM, Windows 98 Operating System and I was
super content playing Brian Lara Cricket, Quake and Mortal Combat almost
everyday

Eventually when it started to hang and stop working I
upgraded to a better PC which was now running Windows XP, a revolutionary
Operating System by Microsoft at that point of time which made browsing and the
whole PC experience far easier. My needs were again limited to small PC games,
playing videos using a VCD, basic mail checking and downloading songs (of <
4MB size) restricted by a dial up connection, that got disconnected every time
a call came in the landline. The computer was reliable, responsive and almost
gave me a trouble free experience.

Years down the line, I bought my first laptop for my higher
education and that was the pinnacle of technology as what I saw it. A PC that I
could carry around everywhere I went ( though marginally heavy) and aided me
immensely in my needs that now included case study presentations, preparing
complex financial worksheets using MS excel ,and also some action games that
demanded higher processing speeds and memory

After another decade now I finally decided to change/upgrade
both my desktop PC at home and my laptop. Hence began scouring the e-commerce
sites for both laptops. It was then I discovered two amazing new launches from
the pioneers , Asus

The Asus EeeBook exceeds all my requirements
for a laptop at an incredible price that can be matched by no other
brands.Additionally some of the
features that attracted me are :

Extremely sleek and weighs just < 1KG which makes it super
easy for carrying on the go

Incredible price of 14,999 which is basically 30-40% cheaper
than a decent smartphone, if not other branded laptops. I can probably say for
sure that this is the least expensive laptop in the country)

It comes with a 2 cell battery that provide up to 12 hours
of battery time (that’s roughly 5 times the battery time of any laptop which is
thrice the cost of this)

500GB of web storage, 1 year subscription to Microsoft
Office 365 along with 1 TB of online cloud storage.

1.33 GHz Intel Atom Quad Core Processor and 2 GB Ram that
should easily handle and multitask several applications at once

32GB internal storage with a Micro SD card slot that can
extend up to 128 GB for saving personal files and multimedia

Possessing an Asus Zenfone 5 for the past 6 months, I am
more than convinced that their laptops too will be equally competitive and
superior to any other brand in the market, and hence leaves with me a definite
choice of going for this laptop

For my home desktop use, I laid my eyes on the ASUS All In
One PC ET2040 and I must admit this is the single most piece of technology that
can revolutionize the PC market and also the way we use desktops at home.

Eliminating the huge bulky cabinets with those processors, CD/Floppy
drives and other ports, Desktops have come a long way, to be launched and
renamed as an All in One PC

In this category, Asus seems to have outdone its competition
in launching this amazing piece of machinery

Costing just Rs.26,000 (Far cheaper than any of its
competitors in this category) ,the ASUS All In One PC ET2040 definitely
warrants a look and specifications that make it look like a 50K gadget and also has a very sleek ,space saving design

It comes with aIntel Pentium Quad Core J2900 Processor, 2.41 GHz with Turbo
Boost that should play almost any 3D game smoothly without the slightest lag and handle several applications at once

Comes with a 19.5 Inch HD LED back lit Display, making movie watching experience an incredible one

Built-in backup power up to 1 hour,
that lets you save any file in case of any power outages. This is a very smart
feature and incredibly useful that is not found in almost any other system till
date. Even an expensive UPS for a desktop would ideally give power for only
20-3 minutes. But this 1 hour backup system in the Asus all in one PC totally makes
the UPS redundant saving a lot of money in the process

Has a 500 GB hard drive that can
store nearly 500 videos easily and a plethora of work files, games and other
multimedia files. One thing that’s for sure is you’ll never run out of space to
save your precious files

Innovative gesture control for
controlling multimedia players or browsing the internet. You can play songs,
videos, adjust player settings, scroll and zoom through photos all by waving a
hand or by using your fist without touching the mouse or the keyboard

3 USB 3.0 ports and 3 USB 2.0 Ports
with an HDMI port makes it a seamless connectivity to other external storage or
output devices

Hands down this is the best all in one device that I can
think of, to purchase for my home

Valentine’s Day, according to me is a day that has ennobled
the concept of love. It has witnessed a renaissance in the past decade with
increased enthusiasm, participation amongst people across the world to make it
an even special day. For those in love, it’s a magical day that makes them
forget everything else in life and try to cherish their love with their loved ones.
For others, it gives them a brazen confidence to approach the one they love and
propose to them in a bold daring manner. Some may be successful and get a
positive reply, while some may be turned down unfortunately.

Nevertheless, this special day of love comes just once in a
year and almost everyone would probably have their creative minds in motion. It
urges them to do something very special for their love, something very
artistic, bold, romantic and in a way that expresses their undying love to each
other.

If I was in a similar stance of conveying my love to my
Valentine, here’s how I would do it:

To begin with, I’ll come up with a concrete set of ideas to
make the proposal and also have additional backup plans if the primary one
fails due to various reasons.

I would call her the previous night itself to check her
schedule for the following day and see if she’s free for the day. With all hope
there should be nothing that should spoil my plans

On the dawn of this special day, I would rise up early and
get a nice brush with Close-up paste to give me that extra confidence and that
glitter in my smile

On my way to pick her up, I would collect the fresh bunch of
roses, dark chocolate I had ordered a few days, along with the gifts that I had
already bought.I would take her to a luxury restaurant for an American
breakfast that includes Pancakes, Sandwich and Juice which is actually her favorite

Finishing breakfast I would ask her if I can take her out on
a drive, though wouldn’t hint at what are the things that’s been planned. I
would then take her out to a theater and present her tickets for a movie which
she was dying to watch, but couldn’t get tickets earlier.

The next agenda on the plan would be to take her to yet another favorite activity of hers : Laser-Tag

Running around the arena, with the adrenaline pumping and shooting people with laser pointed guns would definitely increase her excitement and also let get of some of the pressure she's been having lately

Knowing her fully well , her inevitable next question would be : What's next ?

I would drive her away to the final most exciting plan of the day. The destination would be the Shipping Port of Chennai. After parking the car , I would ask her to be blindfolded, while I lead her to a dock where a beautiful mini cruise ship would be awaiting her (I will have arranged for a mini trip in the cruise ship for 3-4 hours with my group of friends earlier) I would unwrap her blindfold and watch her reel in joy at the sight of the ship. The ship's banner would have her name ,with a welcome sign

As she runs towards the ship inside,she would find herself surrounded by all our close friends, screaming "Surpriseee ... !" .

The ship would slowly start sailing ,and after a brief amount of time as the revelation sets in ,I would call out her name through the speaker to join me in the main front deck. As I watch her coming towards me, I would signal the DJ to play "There was a time..." song by Elton John .

I would then kneel down in one leg and propose to her with a ring in my hand and ask her if she would love me back ,watching her priceless reaction, forever waiting for her nod of approval.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

"Be a Roman when you are in Rome" goes the famous saying, which
is probably one of the most highly misinterpreted quote by Indians. The fact
that, it encourages people to adapt to local living conditions and abide by its laws
can somehow be misconstrued by us Indians to somehow live ourselves by the “The
Indian Way”

So when you begin to ask , “How do I go about living this “Indian Way” of life, here are some key rules that you should remember before adapting
to this approach:

There are no rules that you should follow while
in India. You may proceed to do anything as long as it is comfortable to you.

Roads are not only or walking or driving
vehicles. It’s also used for Littering, Spitting , Haphazard Parking, disposing
of the leftover food ,defecating, burning effigies in lieu of campfire and Playing
Cricket. Thou shall apply to Lanes, Streets, Main
Roads and even National Highways

Chewing gums, due to its sticky nature, has to
be preserved post usage, by sticking on to public walls, train or bus seats. If
either of the options seems to be unavailable, public platforms may also be
considered as a sticking zone.

“All the world’s a stage” quoted Shakespeare.
But in India, All Lamp Posts are Bathrooms, we remarked in return. In case of emergency
, thou shall be allowed to use any street corner, school walls, lamp posts to
use a makeshift restrooms instead of looking for corporation bathrooms.

If one sees a pile of garbage anywhere , even if
it’s not necessarily placed inside a dustbin, thou shall also use the same location
to dispose of one’s garbage on top of it or adjacent to it. Throwing the filled garbage bag from a
distance, like a Basketball Free Throw may earn additional points

Spitting is an art and it takes time to master
the craft. Spitting can be done in any of the alternative ways.

-Thou shall attempt to spit from a fast moving
car or bus that will have an outward tangent way of travelling and depositing
accurately in the vehicles beside us or preferably another person's face

-Paan Masala , Tobacco and Gutkhas can be used to
do spray painting on walls, pavements,main roads or sometimes even on top of movie posters

- Once the above checklist is completed, thou shall deem to
live the Indian way of Life

On a more serious note, the above points are some of the major
highlights of what’s plaguing this otherwise beautiful country of India, which
seems to attract millions of visitors across the globe

Local state governments has indeed taken several small
initiatives in its process of cleaning up cities and villages, but we somehow
continuously ignore the calls for cleanliness, flout the rules and end up
dirtying our very own city , sometimes even our house as well .

I am seeing a
fair amount of progress post the announcement of the Swachh Bharath Campaign
by the Prime Minister, though wary of how long it’ll last or remain effective

Ultimately change should come within us and our own self-discipline
to maintain cleanliness not only in our house but also our neighborhood our city
and finally our country too. Let’s adapt a resolution to dispose garbage only
in dustbins, never litter or defecate the streets nor spit on roads .

Distinguish degradable and non-bio degradable and separate the
wastes accordingly while disposal

Saturday, January 17, 2015

We have seen several character assassinations when it comes
to women all over the world. It’s so easy to classify them with a one
dimensional label, having judged them in just one evening or just one
conversation. We overlook most of the times and under estimate a woman’s
capability to be more than just one person.

How quickly we can jump to
conclusions without a moment’s notice, probably being ignorant of woman
excelling in jobs that were usually meant for only men. Also aided by a rigorous
unfair, discriminating practices being handed down in the age old society preventing
women from going out to work much or lessworking late, this has caused the labelling factor to rise even more. Undoubtedly,
in almost every neighbourhood, you can often hear the phrase, “Oh she’s just a
housewife”

Almost in all households, a woman is given almost no choices
and rather a strict ultimatum is put when passed a certain age to choose one
profession. Unconventional or part time hobbies are usually frowned upon as a
waste of time and only mainstream professional work is taken seriously.

There have been umpteen examples where several entrepreneurs
have become famous in more than just one field. Or to say age doesn’t matter,
several housewives have taken up to small time professions to keep the income
coming as well as making them occupied in a creative manner.

One major example was the case of JetBlue Airways. In order
to cut expensive costs to maintain expensive call centers, JetBlue Airways
tried to opt for home call centers. A neighborhood of housewives teamed up together
to setup a home based customer support system which worked out so cheap, yet
efficient for JetBlue Airways. This is one such perfect example of ruling
against an one dimensional labeling against a woman.

How many of our female friends have turned out to be a
software engineer and singer and dancer and painter and a voracious reader and
a caring sister and a professional chef and a host of other things. It is upon
us, in this age and time to stand up against this ridiculous system of one
dimensional labeling of a woman and rather celebrate the multitude of things
that make them who they are